ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is satisfied with Dominica’s recent economic performance, a senior official at the agency has revealed.
IMF mission chief for Dominica, Patrick Njoroge, who headed an IMF team to the Eastern Caribbean country, on Tuesday commended government for its efforts in adopting reforms in the local economy.
“We should say that the government has put together a credible package of reform as in the growth and social protection strategy paper. The point here is to lay the foundation of growth and this is improving the investment climate of which the budget speech did talk about,” the IMF mission chief to Dominica said.
A statement by the IMF mission to Dominica revealed that government’s “successful implementation of the economic programme has resulted in strong macro economic performance, which has boosted economic activity and restored the foundation of sustainable growth and poverty reduction.
“The Dominica authorities are to be commended for their efforts in achieving macroeconomic stability through sustained fiscal consolidation and a collaborative debt restructuring effort,” the Fund said, noting that the introduction of the Value Added Tax was an important step for the country.
“Regrettably, subsequent amendments that provided incentives to selected sectors weakened a regime that was designed with few exceptions and a limited set of zero-rates supplies. In light of this, the authorities’ commitment to ensure that the VAT regime remains nondistortionary is welcome,” the statement said.
Njoroge told a Press conference that the 2006/07 budget which was recently passed in the country’s parliament was in line with the targets set out under the agency’s poverty reduction and growth facility and consistent with prospects for growth in the economy.
“Yes indeed the current budget is in line with the targets that the government’s programme has that is the PRGF arrangement,” Njoroge said.
“The budget should be measured against the long term debt and fiscal sustainability of the government. All those things are put together in the budget and shows that it is consistent with sustaining growth in the economy so from that perspective we are very pleased with what we have seen,” he said.
The July 31 to August 1 IMF mission to Dominica was part of the Fund’s 2006 Eastern Caribbean Currency Union regional discussions with the Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.